Gordon Hensley Political/Business/Policy Bio

Gordon Hensley is an independent Washington, DC-based communications strategist and writer with a diverse 30-year background spanning national GOP politics, Capitol Hill, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), corporate advocacy and health policy. 

Originally from Brooklyn NY, Hensley is a former communications director and speechwriter for the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), a GOP Governor, 4 Capitol Hill lawmakers, and a variety of U.S. Senate and gubernatorial campaigns across the country. In addition to paid staff or consulting experience on 6 presidential campaigns, he’s spent extensive time working on the ground in over a dozen states, including New York, Texas, California, Texas, New Hampshire, Oregon, Louisiana, Tennessee, Minnesota and New Jersey.

Hensley’s experiential understanding of unique state capitol/media/political cultures inform his strategic approach to national communications and advocacy efforts. This level of state knowledge and perspective has long formed one of the key bases of his consulting value proposition and competitive advantage. He harbors a deep-seated skepticism toward DC-centric consultants and perspectives that lack substantial experience or understanding beyond the Beltway, New York City and the Acela corridor.   

1990s

After spending the early and mid-90s working for Pres. George H.W. Bush, multiple statewide campaigns and the NRSC, Hensley founded GOP campaign communications firm Strategic Media, Inc (SMI) in 1997. Clients of the Georgetown-based start-up included U.S. Sens. Al D’Amato (R-NY) and Paul Coverdell (R-GA), Gov. George Pataki (R-NY), the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), the NY and CA GOP state parties, TX Gov. George W. Bush’s ’99-00 presidential primary campaign, and others.

To discuss campaigns and politics, Hensley appeared twice at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and has been a guest lecturer or panelist at UT-Austin, LSU-Baton Rouge, Rutgers (NJ) Eagleton Institute, Saint Anselm College (NH), Pace University (NY), the National Press Club, and other DC media forums.

2000s

By 2000, Hensley had worked on-year and off-year campaigns 12 of the past 14 years. Burned out from the divisiveness of partisan politics and the growing negativity in campaign dialogue, he began shifting to non-partisan healthcare advocacy work. Larger public affairs firms began retaining SMI for work on federal and state healthcare projects (Mercury Public Affairs, Edelman), Hensley’s business focus shifted to Medicare/Medicaid reimbursement and issues advocacy work on behalf of long term and post-acute care providers. Two of SMI’s largest initial healthcare clients were the DC-based American Health Care Association (AHCA) and Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care (AQNHC), while state clients included the TX Health Care Association (THCA) and PA Health Care Association (PHCA). 

In 2004 Hensley made his firm smaller, not larger. The 4 person office configuration he’d used for political campaign work was modified to “solopreneur” corporate status — employing off-site research, media production and other vendors instead of hiring in-office employees. He’s retained this business model through today.

In 2006, during his ongoing transition to healthcare, Hensley was unexpectedly asked to help reorganize and lead TN GOP Senate candidate Bob Corker’s communications effort against Democratic Rep. Harold Ford following a late cycle campaign shake-up. Having consulted for Corker during the Chattanooga businessman’s first 1994 Senate run, Hensley ended up spending most of fall 2006 as senior communications advisor in Nashville while continuing to build his healthcare practice.

After Corker’s victory, a rare win in the GOP disastrous ’06 cycle, Hensley re-branded SMI to sm/c/p (strategic media/content & platforms) — reflecting what Hensley saw in the Corker senate race: The need to better align communications and messaging across multiple social media channels and platforms to cut through an increasingly cluttered information marketplace. Hensley also saw that objective, data-driven studies funded by healthcare companies themselves — not just neutral 3rd parties — were increasingly useful tools to advance clients’ Capitol Hill and regulatory policy narratives. He began collaborating with health data firms to design, write, and market this ancillary research/data advocacy content to help further providers’ policy initiatives.

In 2008-’09 Hensley made a brief foray back into politics by spending time in MN with GOP Sen. Norm Coleman and his legal team during the protracted election recount against fmr Democratic Sen. Al Franken.    Separately, the City of New York tapped Hensley and sm/c/p to serve as lead copywriter on a multi-year project to boost international tourism to NYC from Asia and Europe — a new area of business focus.

In 2015 sm/c/p worked with with DC-based government relations and communications firms (BGR Group, Schmidt Public Affairs, King & Spalding) to help found, launch and establish the Senior Care Pharmacy Coalition (SCPC) as a leading long term care pharmacy (LTCP) voice in the crowded DC pharma advocacy space. Issues related to federal/state PBM regulation, FDA drug repackaging, “21st Century Cures” legislation and opioid abuse became a new legislative and regulatory focus. In addition to leading the writing and policy content development for the pharmaceutical group’s website, Hensley served as lead writer for media messaging and opinion commentary directed at Senate Finance, HELP and Judiciary committee members; and Ways & Means, and Energy & Commerce Committee members on the House side.

In 2015, Hensley served as a primary collaborator on WI GOP Gov. Scott Walker’s presidential announcement speech, and subsequently retained to collaborate on the campaign’s health reform, labor reform and foreign policy rollout speeches in Minneapolis MN, Las Vegas NV, and Charleston SC, respectively. In 2017, sm/c/p formed a strategic alliance with TN-based Bridge Public Affairs, founded by former senior aides to Sen. Bob Corker.

2020s 

As the Covid pandemic gripped the world in 2020, Hensley put aside sm/c/p for 8 months to accept a unique opportunity to join the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS) as a senior communications advisor. In addition to advisory purview at the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Hensley also served as senior media counsel to Covid “testing czar” Adm. Brett P. Giroir.

Hensley resumed sm/c/p business in 2021. His primary focus through 2024 has been pharmaceutical issues, life sciences/biotech, private equity in healthcare, federal cannabis banking reform, and FDA/Capitol Hill study of psychedelics to treat PTSD.     

Hensley studied political science and American literature at George Washington University (GWU) in Washington, D.C. during the early 80s. With an ongoing, decades-long affection for live music, Hensley served from 2012-2020 as a board member of the NYC-based non-profit, Headcount — which registers voters at music festivals. Federal ethics laws required Hensley to step down in 2020 to serve at HHS.